This invention is directed to absorbent pant garments having leg openings cut in such a way that the side regions of the garments are longitudinally narrow and sit substantially above a wearer's thighs.
Absorbent pant garments typically include a pair of side panels that extend from a waist opening to a leg opening, covering a wearer's hips and an upper portion of the wearer's outer thigh area. This full side panel design originated as an effort to reduce leakage. As other features of absorbent pant garments have evolved, these full, or low-cut, side panels have remained relatively consistent in size and shape. For instance, absorbent pant garments used to be relatively loose, with close adherence to the wearer around the waist opening and the leg openings. As these garments have evolved into more close-fitting garments, donning and doffing the garments has become increasingly difficult for wearers, due to increased frictional forces.
While such full side panels may indeed reduce leakage, additional features have also been found to reduce leakage. Elastomeric materials used to be more prone to stress relaxation over time, such as overnight, especially at body temperature, compared to current elastomeric materials. Thus, due to advances in elastomeric technology, absorbent technology, and the advent of additional disposable absorbent garment features, leakage reduction may be provided in absorbent pant garments without the necessity of full, or low-cut, side panels.
Full side panels, while effective in reducing leakage, may present a number of drawbacks for wearers. With the side panels extending over a portion of a wearer's outer thigh area, the side panel coverage may hinder the wearer's movements and cause general discomfort and possibly skin irritation. Also, this extent of coverage causes the garment to move in response to the wearer's slightest leg movements, which may cause an indiscreet rustling sound often associated with disposable absorbent garments, as well as possible gapping around the leg openings. Furthermore, the bulk of such long side panels makes it difficult to camouflage the presence of such garments beneath clothing, and also makes donning and doffing the garment more challenging. Additionally, low-cut side panels create relatively small leg openings, which can be difficult for children to get their feet through the small holes. The size of the leg opening could be increased by using back side panels that are cut high, but this has deleterious side effects in that the product looks less like underwear because too much of the buttocks are exposed. A high cut back side panel that is similar in size and shape to the front panel also makes it difficult to tell the front from the back of a pant, especially for children. Donning a disposable absorbent pant backwards can be a problem because most absorbent pants are designed with a majority of the absorbent material in the front. An absorbent pant that is worn backwards is usually more prone to leak if a child wets in it.
One drawback associated with full, or low-cut, side panels as well as with narrower, or high-cut, side panels is that absorbent pant garments having refastenable side seams integrated within low-cut or high-cut side panels often have sharp corners at the leg edges of the refastenable side seams. Typically the refastenable side seams are designed in such a way that a front side panel can be refastenably attached to a back side panel with one of the side panels overlapping the other such that, if carefully aligned, no sharp edges stick out from the refastenable seam. However, due to process variability and user fastening variability, sharp edges may end up sticking out from the refastenable seams, resulting in skin irritation to the wearer. Furthermore, these protruding corners are where “pop-opens” of the seam are typically initiated. Additionally, these protruding corners are tempting for children to pick at, thus resulting in a child unintentionally opening the side seam. Also, protruding corners may result in a non-underwear-like appearance of the garment and may give the perception of poor quality.
There is a need or desire for absorbent pant garments that are more “underwear-like” in terms of comfort, discreetness, and ease of use, without sacrificing leakage protection. There is also a need or desire for a refastenable side seam design for absorbent pant garments that is more tolerant to process and user fastening variability, and prevents any sharp corners of the side panels from protruding from the seam.